From Wellspring Charitable Gardens this Week - March 30, 2023
From the Garden this Week… Swiss Chard, Broccoli, Purple of Sicily Cauliflower, Cabbage, Romaine, Onions, Arugula, Spinach, Salad Mix, Beets, Radishes, Dill, Cilantro, Parsley, Lemons, Grapefruit, navel & Blood Oranges
Using your Produce… by Julie Moreno
This week we have more broccoli and cauliflower. My simplest recipe is to cut the heads into florets, chop the stems, season with salt, pepper, and oil, and roast for 20 minutes at 425° F. You can even do this with our cabbage: cut it into wedges and cook the same way. Browning the greens enhances the naturally bitter cruciferous vegetables. With all the salad greens this week, I included a recipe using yogurt and our dill to make a simple dressing. And for something more unique, the Swiss chard leaves make a perfect outer wrapper to hold more vegetables and a protein mix of chickpeas and walnuts. Cooking the leaves for a few seconds will keep them tender. Secure the rolls with a toothpick until ready to eat.
Swiss Chard Rolls
6 Swiss chard leaves
2 cups cooked drained chickpeas
1/2 cup walnuts
1 Tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
2 cups shredded vegetables & stems
(cabbage, cauliflower, or broccoli)
salt
¼ cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
1 avocado, diced
* Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cut the stems from the Swiss chard leaves so that you have two pieces. Save the stems for another use. Cook the leaves in the boiling water for 15 seconds, remove from the waters and lay on a towel to cool and dry. In a food processor add the chickpeas, walnuts, and tamari, pulse several times until blended. Toss the shredded vegetables with ¼ teaspoons salt. Lay the leaf piece on your cutting board and spread a thin layer of the chickpea mixture, about 2-3 tablespoons, on top of the center of the leaf. Cover with 3 tablespoons shredded vegetables, a sprinkle of salt, cilantro leaves, and a few pieces of avocado cubes. Roll up each leaf and secure with a toothpick.
Hello WCG Subscribers,
We are reaching out to ask you to share pictures of Wellspring Charitable Garden produce you have used in your recipes or pictures of your own home gardens. We would use this space to do a little feature about you and share your creativity with others. We can include pictures as well as videos.
Today we have a video provided by subscriber Brandon Miller, son of Wendy Miller, an original WCG founder. Brandon has sent us a short video showing his rooftop balcony garden at his apartment in Los Angeles. Thank you, Brandon, for allowing us to share this with our subscribers. Beautiful! You are so talented – practicing law and farming!
Homemade Dressing…
Take the minutes to make your own dressing, and our fresh herbs will take your salad to the next level. We have the herbs and vegetables right now to make this salad.
Salad with Creamy Dill Dressing
1-2 beets
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt
1 tablespoon oil
1-2 teaspoons lemon juice
¼ cup yogurt or buttermilk
fresh ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 tablespoon chopped dill
2-3 radishes, sliced thin
5-6 cups lettuce greens, spinach or
arugula washed and chopped
* Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove the greens from the beets and reserve for another use. Peel if desired or just scrub well, peeling is not required. Slice the beets in half and then place the flat side on a cutting board and slice into half-moon shapes. Toss the slices in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and oil. Put them in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until tender. While the beets are cooking prepare the remaining salad items. In a small bowl mix the dressing: onion, dill, parsley, lemon juice and yogurt with ½ teaspoon salt and fresh ground black pepper. Wash and chop the lettuce and radishes. When the beets are done, remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes. In a large mixing bowl add the vegetables and lightly toss with the dressing. Taste and add additional salt or pepper if desired and serve.
Metaphors of Soil and Soul…
We Hope, Therefore, We Sow
Keith F Martin
Like hope deferred, a dream deferred also makes the heart sick. You may identify with the psalmist who wrote, “We were like those who dream...Restore our captivity (former condition), O Lord...Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:1b,5-6).
A commentator suggested the psalmist had Joseph in mind as he wrote. Psalm 126 begins with a dream reference and ends with gathered sheaves and shouts of joy. If you know the story of Joseph, you will remember how this most favored son of Jacob smugly relates a dream to his envious brothers:
[W]e were binding sheaves in the field, and
lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect.
And behold, your sheaves gathered around
and bowed down to my sheaf.” Then his
brothers said to him, “Are you going to reign
over us? Are you really going to rule over us?”
So they hated him even more for his dreams
and for his words.”
Hate drives them to sell Joseph to traders and report him dead to their father. Resold to Egyptians, Joseph, maligned and forsaken once again, spends years in captivity carrying his bag(gage) and sowing in tears seeds which, in due time, mature into an enduring faith in the sovereign Lord God Almighty, El Shaddai. Years later, God fulfills Joseph’s dream: He restores Joseph’s favor, exalts him to Viceroy of Egypt, and reconciles him – with tears and joyful shouting – to repentant brothers and a jubilant father.
That is the story of Israel, really all humanity, writ large: Offense, Captivity, Repentance, Restoration, and Reconciliation. We are daughters and sons of Israel, whose name means “one who wrestles with God.” The story repeats in Exodus, Judges, Kings, Chronicles then re-echoes in the Gospels and throughout the ages to our present day. Sold and resold and widely dispersed, we share a tearful history of captivity retold in Egypt and Canaan and Babylon and Rome and…. Maligned and forsaken, we suffer in bondage to sin and fallen flesh. We cry out, “Restore our captivity (former condition), O Lord!” and seek refuge in the One whom Joseph’s story foreshadows – Jesus, Redeemer who restores and reconciles us to our Father in Heaven.
Most have had dreams deferred and desires unfulfilled. Our hearts grow heavy, but we sow, pray, wait, and weep - tears watering seeds sown in hope. We trust the LORD to grow them that we might gather our sheaves and bring in the joyful harvest. Paul reminds us, “And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.” As you enjoy the produce this week, recall these joyful words and images of hope fulfilled. May they serve as encouragement. Your weeping and sowing are not in vain.
